Bitchin’ brews

This week’s beer tour takes us back to a time when pants could moonlight as parachutes and Frankie asked us to relax. (Full disclosure: I was born in 1985, so I’m not actually qualified to make any statements about life in the ’80s. Without Googling, I couldn’t tell you who Frankie was or why he wanted us to relax. Sorry, guys — stick with me.)

This bodacious rip in the space-time continuum opened up this past Thursday, March 29, at The Lobby in Denver where the Colorado Craft Brew Week event “New Kids on the Block” gave attendees the chance to sample beers from breweries two years old and younger.

To sweeten the pot just a little (just in case beers from more than 20 breweries aren’t enough for you) there was also a costume contest. Who won is completely irrelevant and unknown to me because I was grabbing a beer when the winner was announced. Everyone is a winner in DayGlo spandex.

And while I love beer, I don’t consider my opinion on beer to be anything more than that – just an opinion. I know what I like and I know what I often don’t like. I tried to channel my best Roger Ebert (while also channeling my best Cyndi Lauper) and judge beers for what they are rather than my personal tastes.

However, I failed miserably at that and stopped taking notes after my sixth or seventh taster. My companions for the evening, who did grow up in the ’80s, continued to take notes. What they mean is anybody’s guess. There’s probably some sort of lesson about not drinking on the job to be learned here, but when the job involves that many hot pink hot pants, what else is a hard-nosed investigator to do but drink heavily?

But it does beg the question: if this many breweries popped up in the last two years alone, is it possible that we’re reaching critical mass? Dare I say it, but “peak craft beer?” Or are we just entering the golden age for cab drivers…